May 2, 1892.1 
THE TROmOAL AOWX5t>LTUmST. 
823 
Oonlinent, in the same latitude as the deposits occur 
IB Chili, but the physical diflacullies the country 
presents have, so far, prevented ft complete survey; 
THE DISCOVEEY. 
Speke ftud Grant (whose distinguished services were 
by the way, ill requited by their country) in their tra- 
vels in Central Africa, twenty-five years ago, made al- 
lusion to extensive fields of natural " sofiium" which 
the natives on the shores of Lake Tangauyika collected 
and bartered with tlie neighbouring tribes, whilst ear- 
lier in the century the famous and amiable Dr. Moffat, 
referring to a saline deposit in that terra incognita, de- 
scribed it QS " saltpetre." But within the last fort- 
night more ooncise and autheutio information lias been 
received, and the existence of practically inexhuustible 
beds of nitrate in the Equatorial provinces is reported 
on the authority of the German explorer. Dr. Peters. 
This iraportRut discovery has beeo made within the 
German sphere of inftnence, but there is strong pre- 
sumptive evidence that similar deposits will be found 
within the adjoininfi; territory of tne British East Af- 
rican Company, where the climatic and geological con- 
ditions are almost precisely identical. Owing to the 
difficulty of transport a few years must elapee before 
African nitrate c?.n become a merchantable commodity, 
but the partition of Africa amongst the European pow- 
ers has been followed by extraordinarily rapid develop- 
ments, and railroad communication with the interior 
is simply a question of time. Already the subject of 
constructing a railway to the great lakes is under con- 
sideration, and in support of the project the Govern- 
ment this week are bringinc: for ward a propogJKl to 
grant £20,000 towarda the survey of aline from Mom- 
basa (Zinz bar) to the Victoria Nyauza.— Zn-cr/wo/ 
Monthly Circular. 
TRADE PEOSPECTS IN CENTRAL 
AFRICA. 
Before a special general mseetiug of the London 
Chamber of Commerce, held in the council-room, 
Botolph-bouse, Baatcheap, a paper was read on Thurs- 
day by Mr. Monntfeoev Jephson ou " The Possible 
Expansion of Britiah Trade in East Africa,." Sir A. 
K. RoUit, M P., Chairman of the Council, presided, 
and there was a good attendance. 
Mr. Jephson observed that three-quarters of the 
British public thought that Central Africa was either 
one uuge desert or one huge foreat, but in the interior 
of the cointry there were vast tracts of fertile land, 
which were only awaiting cultivation to yield a 
practically unlimited supply of raw material to feed 
our British looms and factories, and there was also a 
vast negro population ready to exchange our manu- 
factured goods for those raw products. It was im- 
possible entirely to separate trade and pbilanthropy in 
Africa. Any on^ reading the history of the march of 
civilization in Africa must be siruck by the fact that 
roost of the importiint and lasting benefits to civiliza- 
tion in Central Africa were due to trade. The British 
East Africa Company was largely composed of Scotch 
and English gentlemen, whose philanthropic instincts 
were as proverbial as their instincts for bu-iness and 
commerce. Ho considered Uganda, owing to its position, 
to its oommandiDg so extojded a waterway, and to 
the boalthincsa of the climate, as the key to the 
rich countries of the interior. Every traveller who had 
visit>>d Uganda invariably spoke of it as a conatry 
with a great fntiu-e. Very superior coffee grew there 
wild in abundance, and. if cultivated, it wou^d become 
a groat source of wealth and rovenuo to tlie country. 
They might safidy consider that tea was another trade 
which would spring up with the pacification and 
dovelopmout of Uganda. It has also been for many 
yoar.i a great up-oouutry depot for ivory. In all the 
upland ooiuitrios lying around the head-waters of 
the Nile cmilo wt^ro plentiful, and a large trade in 
hidua could also ba organized. One of the chief 
sources throngh which Emiu had proposed to bring 
in a liivgo rovt;nuB for tho province was oil. The raw 
coitoa which might be imported from Africa in'o 
England if the oultivatioa of the cottou plant were 
prop orly developed would ireo Englsud entirely from 
being dependent upon foreign countries for her raw 
cotton, much of which could be returned to Africa in 
the shape of manufactured cotton cloth. Almost the 
entire country between the lakes and the coast was 
suitable for the cultivation of cotton. The growing 
of tobacco, too, might be developed into a large trade. 
Sugar-cane, wild indigo, and fibre plants grew freely 
and were indigenous in many parts of Africa within 
the British sphere of influence. Cereals of many 
kinds, as well as rice and oil seeds, could be grown 
greatly in excess of home requirements, and oould be 
exported to India, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. 
In fact, there were few necessary things which oould 
not ba grown in the British sphere of infiuence in 
Africa. One of the most important of the many nataral 
products of Equatorial Africa was indiarabber, and 
the trade in ostrich feathers was capable of gre»t 
extension. Although there were in Central Africa many 
million acres of rolling grass downs, all these savan- 
nabs were so infested with parasites that sheep would 
not, he thought, become suflaciently numerous to make 
Africa a wool-producing country. Throughout the 
whola of Central Africa there was abundance of iron 
ore, and gold-bearing quartz had been found in large 
quantity. Copper knives and ornaments were common 
features in Monbuttu, Niamniam and the adjoining 
countries, where the metal was found in large deposits. 
Speaking of the probable imports of manufactured 
goods from Great Britain, the lecturer said that 
between Mombasa and the Victoria Nyanza the usual 
Manchester cotton goods, woollen stuff, beads of 
various kinds, brass and iron wire and iron hoes, and 
hardware of all kinds vyere the mutual coin of the 
country. He hoped thit as trade developed in Africa, 
and as the means of transport were improved, the 
manufactured goods we introduced would be of a better 
quality. It was, however, useless to talk about extend- 
ing trade in Africa and bringing up trade goods to a 
better description without having railways to trans- 
port thera. Stanley, as far back as the time when he 
first entered Africa on his search for Livingstone, said 
that nothing would ever be done in Africa until it was 
surrounded by an iron girdle. What was now wanted 
was to produce a storm of public feeling so overwhelm- 
ing that no Government would d-vre to ignore public 
opinio 1 by refusing measures for granting a gnaranteo 
necessary to enable a company to build a railway from 
the coast to Lake Victoria. Its construction should 
be considered as belonging to the duty of the Imperial 
Government, for it would be the means of stamping 
out the slave trade and opening up British East Africa 
to civilization and commerce, which was eminently an 
Imperial duty. At present everything in Africa had to 
be carried ou men's heads, and therefore the Arabs 
made slave raids to obtain slaves, whom they used as 
beasts of burden. If the railway were built and steam- 
ers put upon the lake there would be no longer any 
need for human carriers. He would impress strongly 
upon tbeir minds that this help which was expected 
from the Government was not a party affair, and that 
the scheme of a railway was entirely suggested by the 
declarations embodied in the Brussels Act, and the ne- 
cessity there wan for opening up new fields for British 
manufactures. The Government was not asked to put 
a farther burden upon the Treasury, but merely to 
turn a portion of the £200,000 which it annually ex- 
pended upon its squadron on the East Coast into an- 
other and much more effective channel. He thought 
he was not unreasonable in asking' the various Oham- 
Bers of Commerce to use their iuflueuce with the Go- 
vernment, to make sure that what the Government had 
recognized as its duty at theBrussels Conference should 
be carried out. — London Times, March 5. 
CINCHONA PROSPECTS. 
Wliero no counsel is, the people fall ; but in the 
multitude of counsellors there is safety. When, about 
throo thousini! years ago, Solomon laid down this opinion 
it is ovidint that ho did not foresee the plan upon 
which tho spcoulative produce business in general and 
tho quinine trade in particular, would be oonduct'ed at 
the end of the nineteenth century. The very hirgeuees 
